# admin.json

After this page you can write the settings of a site yourself, or let your AI coding assistant write them.

`admin.json` lives in the root of your repository. Siteshare always reads it from `main`, never from the client's draft. Every field is optional: without the file, or with a field left out, Siteshare uses what it found when it checked the site.

```json
{
  "start": "npm run dev -- --host 0.0.0.0 --port {port}",
  "build": "npm run build",
  "protected": ["src/components/Footer.astro"],
  "open": ["src/components/cards/**"],
  "instructions": "Write the bakery's name in full: Bakkerij De Korst.",
  "folder": "apps/web"
}
```

## The fields

### `start`

The command that starts the site's development server, as text. `{port}` is filled in with the port Siteshare uses. The command runs as words, never through a shell: no `&&`, pipes or variables. Without it, Siteshare uses the usual command for the kind of site.

### `build`

The command that builds the site, as your host would. Siteshare builds before every publication, so a client can never publish a site that does not build. Without it: `npm run build`, or what the kind of site uses.

### `protected`

Paths or patterns your clients may never change, on top of what is protected already. A pattern uses `*` for one level, `**` for any depth, and `{a,b}` for either. Example: `["src/components/Footer.astro", "src/layouts/**"]`. At most 200 lines.

### `open`

Paths or patterns you release from what is protected by default, such as a folder of components whose text clients may change. `admin.json` itself can never be opened. At most 200 lines.

### `instructions`

Text for the assistant your client talks to, at most 4000 characters: the tone of the site, words to use or avoid, what to leave alone. Write it as you would to a new colleague.

### `folder`

The folder the site stands in, when it is not at the top of the repository, such as `"apps/web"` in a monorepo. `"."` means the top. Without it, Siteshare uses the folder it finds.

## When the file has a mistake

A mistake never holds a site back. Siteshare uses its own settings for what it cannot read, and the site's page and **Log** say what was wrong, in plain words. A file that is not valid JSON counts as no file at all.

## What Siteshare checks

- `admin.json` is always protected: a client or the assistant can never change it.
- When you save settings in **Settings**, Siteshare writes `admin.json` as one commit on `main`, marked `[skip ci]`, and only what it would read itself.
- A change to `protected` or `open` gives a line in the site's **Log**, with who made it.